forums: Change to a public for format or keep private

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 2:02 pm

Richard, so basically you feel like the one or two or three folks that email wanting forum access because they want more event info might not be showing up at events because they couldn't easily ask a question or whatever?

That's not an unreasonable position, but I'm still not sure it's a reason to go whole hog with making all the forums public. But I would agree that might be a good reason to go to both public and private forums, anyway.

Personally, I do think this forum does well because we all know who is who and because of that we all speak more like we would in person. And since there's no way to enforce that on a public forum, the public forum signal to noise ratio will go down. I'm not sure that's worth it. But if we had *both*, I'm cool with that. Whether we have enough traffic to keep *both* interesting is another question, however. Volume could kill one or the other.

But I still submit that while you may gain a handful of entrants per event with public forums, you still may lose *members* who don't show up at events. Those members are pure profit, so you want to measure that effect VERY carefully, IMHO.

--Donnie

Chris Halweg · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 2:57 pm

I personally like that the forum is private. I love that we use real names so I can put faces with posts. On other local forums, that is difficult to do. The fact that the forums are private has pushed me over the years to keep my membership active to the point that this year I just did the lifetime membership to be done with it. In addition to car related topics, this forum is great for non-car venders, home ownership stuff as well. I know that in general people on this forum have the means to own a home etc. vs. many of the other car related forums that can be over run by teenagers etc. I wouldn't be upset if we had a public sub-forum, but honestly facebook could serve this purpose without cluttering up our forums. My $0.02.

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:07 pm

Chris, thats a good point. We should link to our Facebook acct from the main website. Maybe even point people there for any questions that they might have?

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:53 pm

Jason Mauldin wrote:

Chris, thats a good point. We should link to our Facebook acct from the main website. Maybe even point people there for any questions that they might have?

This. Everything has a "Like us on Facebook" button, why not us? The FB presence does a good job handling most of what a public sub-forum would accomplish in re questions about upcoming events, meeting dates, site directions etc (although the fact those questions exist is testimony that our website may need a re-do...)

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:06 pm

Donnie Barnes wrote:

Richard, so basically you feel like the one or two or three folks that email wanting forum access because they want more event info might not be showing up at events because they couldn't easily ask a question or whatever?

That's not an unreasonable position, but I'm still not sure it's a reason to go whole hog with making all the forums public. But I would agree that might be a good reason to go to both public and private forums, anyway.

Personally, I do think this forum does well because we all know who is who and because of that we all speak more like we would in person. And since there's no way to enforce that on a public forum, the public forum signal to noise ratio will go down. I'm not sure that's worth it. But if we had *both*, I'm cool with that. Whether we have enough traffic to keep *both* interesting is another question, however. Volume could kill one or the other.

But I still submit that while you may gain a handful of entrants per event with public forums, you still may lose *members* who don't show up at events. Those members are pure profit, so you want to measure that effect VERY carefully, IMHO.

--Donnie

When you attempt to register it warns you that you must be a member. So I see those that either choose to ignore that warning, or miss it somehow. So I think some turn away and don't even make it to me. How many want to join and can't, I have no idea what that number is. But it is likely higher than the number of request I get now.

Maybe the Facebook idea would work. But that is going to be another job for someone to do (monitor for questions).

Outside of the difficulty of manual membership and forum access permissions, my next big concern with running both a public and private forum (either two different forums as suggested earlier, a split public/private forum or a private forum and open Facebook group) is at one is going to flourish and one is going to die on its own. Will there be both a public and private autocross and track forum? Will pre and post event discussions happen in two places? I tend to think (I could be wrong) that if we do a good job of offering up a quality public and private solution that the vast bulk of conversations will gravitate to the public side.

But I have no problem with giving a half and half public/private forum a try. But I think there would be a number of details for the next admin team to work out.

Richard

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:07 pm

Steven Carter wrote:

Jason Mauldin wrote:

Chris, thats a good point. We should link to our Facebook acct from the main website. Maybe even point people there for any questions that they might have?

This. Everything has a "Like us on Facebook" button, why not us? The FB presence does a good job handling most of what a public sub-forum would accomplish in re questions about upcoming events, meeting dates, site directions etc (although the fact those questions exist is testimony that our website may need a re-do...)

No it doesn't imply that. People are overwhelmed with information these days. If they want to find it they will. Other people are just checking it out and want a person to answer their questions. No, we don't have to cater to those people but maybe we want to if there's a chance to get them out to an event.

Each of our events should have a like and a tweet button. Of course I say that with no idea about how difficult it would be to make that.

Also has anyone tried registering for our events from a smartphone? Is it possible?

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:13 pm

Oh, I also meant to comment that I really wonder how many club members we would loose if we went with a primarily public forum. Anecdotally I think a fraction of the membership visits or posts here. Of that group who really would leave because we change the forum? Please speak up as I have yet to hear anyone say this is a deal breaker. Yes I think there are things that need to be done to do it right. Don't expose the current posts. Keep some type of private area for staff. Maybe even a for members only area.

Richard

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:21 pm

Jason Mauldin wrote:

No it doesn't imply that. People are overwhelmed with information these days. If they want to find it they will. Other people are just checking it out and want a person to answer their questions. No, we don't have to cater to those people but maybe we want to if there's a chance to get them out to an event.

Each of our events should have a like and a tweet button. Of course I say that with no idea about how difficult it would be to make that.

Also has anyone tried registering for our events from a smartphone? Is it possible?

My point is that it appears easier to ask a question on the FB page (which already exists and has 345+ friends--Richard was making it sound like it didn't exist) than it is to navigate through the website. Why not use what already is showing us to be the more effective communication medium for keeping non-members or "on the edge" members abreast of our events?

It is also very easy to post links to the schedule page and event registration page from posts on the FB site, which would further ease the way our FB friends could register for events.

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:43 pm

Donnie Barnes wrote:

Personally, I do think this forum does well because we all know who is who and because of that we all speak more like we would in person. And since there's no way to enforce that on a public forum, the public forum signal to noise ratio will go down. I'm not sure that's worth it. But if we had *both*, I'm cool with that. Whether we have enough traffic to keep *both* interesting is another question, however. Volume could kill one or the other.

I think this is the sticking point for me. If we have a public forum I'd likely not post in it much. I don't come to this specific forum to post car questions and commentary, I come to this forum to post car questions and commentary with real people that I do car stuff with.

I don't really care what xxxXXXvtakboyie2fast4uXXXxxx has to say about 99% of the stuff posted on this forum.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:29 am

Very good comments on this so far. I'm still on internal debate mode on this.... Also interesting to see we're almost at an even split on forum voting. Again, very good points pro and con here.

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Funny that non-members don't know how to ask questions -- we have a contacts link on our home page, from which you can email any of the officers.

I voted for the forum to remain private. After all, where else can I discuss politics and religion with Steve? <That's a joke, son!> If it's opened to the public, I might check in once in a while but will avoid posting. A mixed open/closed forum isn't attractive either to me. Thanks for the reminder that Swap&Sell is public.

steve remchak · **Posted:** Tue Sep 04, 2012 11:42 pm

Arthur McDonald wrote:

Funny that non-members don't know how to ask questions -- we have a contacts link on our home page, from which you can email any of the officers.

I voted for the forum to remain private. After all, where else can I discuss politics and religion with Steve? <That's a joke, son!> If it's opened to the public, I might check in once in a while but will avoid posting. A mixed open/closed forum isn't attractive either to me. Thanks for the reminder that Swap&Sell is public.

So you agree with me that whatever I say is unequivocally based in some truth then Art? :wink:

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

Arthur McDonald wrote:

Funny that non-members don't know how to ask questions -- we have a contacts link on our home page, from which you can email any of the officers.

I voted for the forum to remain private. After all, where else can I discuss politics and religion with Steve? <That's a joke, son!> If it's opened to the public, I might check in once in a while but will avoid posting. A mixed open/closed forum isn't attractive either to me. Thanks for the reminder that Swap&Sell is public.

I get email questions from noobs all the time, and apparently my phone number is on the website somewhere too, as I've gotten a coupel phone calls as well.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:17 am

I'm retracting my vote. I think I'd like it to remain private too. Art's voice of reason made me change my mind

.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:01 am

I have gone round and round on this. I used to be very much in the "private" camp. I still think a public (or more accurately mostly public) forum is the right thing, but I think with some tweaks to our online presence, I think things can be improved and still keep an private forum (with all the membership maintenance issues continuing)

For me, my #1 take away from this is that I am no longer going to just direct people who want access to the forum to the link the membership application PDF, but rather, to Facebook in addition to providing the link for membership.

This is the wrong thread for this, but someone else mentioned it somewhere, but I think we also should look at a complete revamp of the website. if I remember correctly, there are technical issues with the current setup that makes it hard to change/maintain. I think we need to think about who we serve with the main website. I think a large part of it should be devoted to recruiting/providing info to new members (in addition to serving current members), so something like a link to Facebook should be front and center. Membership only features (such as the link to the forum) could potentially be moved off the front page. That will cut down on the misdirects regarding people looking for information.

I personally think this topic has just about been talked out. Or at least I don't have much left to contribute regarding opinions. I have not personally reached and talked to other officers (outside of public threads on this forum) to see what if any action is planned to be taken on this topic. I am curious where we go from here. Basically lots of idea... but, what is next?

Richard

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